Soldatino
by thespeedforce4
Summary: close your eyes; I know what you see. the darkness is high, and you're in ten feet deep. but we've survived more terrible monsters than sleep. and you know I will be here to tell you to breathe. [Spitfire]


Soldatino {Soldier}  
><em>so you run; through shadows you roam, seams undone by the love you thought you could own<em>

[Spitfire]

Rating: T – minor violence and all around sadness and feels

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><p><em><strong>close your eyes; I know what you see<strong>_

_**the darkness is high, and you're in ten feet deep**_

_Soldatino (Nico's Lullaby) by Paola Bennet_

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><p>It started as a simple recon mission. Her first mission as Tigress. She was ready. Or at least, she thought she was.<p>

"_Remember, just get the Intel and get out_." Nightwing's voice cracked through her com. "_From this point out we are on radio silence_." The archer turned her com off. Now that she was alone, she made her way to the back entrance of the massive LexCorp building. Nightwing was entering from the front, Bart from the side and Cassie was watching from the bioship, ready as backup in case they needed it.

Artemis made it up the first five flights of stairs with no trouble. On her way to the sixth level she heard voices above her. She exited the staircase and cut through an office room and weaved through cubicles, making her way to the second set of stairs on the other side of the building.

A janitor was vacuuming in front of the door that led to Artemis' exit. She debated just sneaking around him, but the man turned the vacuum off and pulled out his headphones. It took him an impressively short amount of time to notice Artemis and he was able to grab his radio and hit the call button that would alert the guards of the imposter's presence.

Wrong move.

Tigress swiftly pulled out her crossbow and shot the walkie-talkie out of the man's hand, destroying it past the point of fixing. He let out a curse and with the hand that wasn't holding the radio reached behind his back and grabbed a hand gun that was stashed in his utility belt that Artemis couldn't help but compare to the Boy Wonder's. Although, she doubted LexCorp employees all had access to kryptonite.

Artemis had known enough about Lex Luthor to expect this. Before the man could train the gun unto her she was already kicking it out of his hand. But not before the gun shot into one of the thin walls of a nearby cubicle.

_So much for recon._

White rage flowed through Tigress, now that her cover was blown, she had no reason to stay hidden any longer. She threw a punch into the man's jaw and grinned menacingly at the way it cracked under her knuckles. As the janitor stumbled back she grabbed the collar of his jumpsuit and pulled him closer to her so she could knee him in the stomach. The man bent over and Tigress used his weakened stance as an advantage and elbowed him on his spine, effectively knocking him onto his knees.

Tigress then delivered a kick into his side hard enough to break a couple of ribs. The janitor coughed up blood and she knew she must have punctured one of his lungs.

She pulled out her crossbow and aimed it for the man's chest, fully prepared to put him down like the animal he was when she suddenly dropped her weapon.

"Wally?" A blur of yellow and red zoomed past her and her heart stopped.

"Tigress, what are you doing?" Kid Flash asked, standing between her and the man in front of her. The orange and black clad heroine stared into the boy's green eyes. For a moment, just a split second, Artemis could have sworn it was Wally's green eyes piercing into her own gray ones. But it wasn't Wally.

Bart gave the blonde archer a confused look before it quickly turned to one of sympathy. "You called me Wally again," he whispered tentatively, his voice gentle and innocent, but Artemis couldn't help the growing rage deep in her chest.

Before she could snap at Kid Flash she caught another glance at his honest eyes. They were green, like Wally's, but where the former hero's eyes signed radiantly always, Bart's were a duller green and seemed almost one dimensional to the archer.

"Our cover was blown, we need to leave." When Bart didn't follow her right away she turned and glowered at him venomously, "now."

The next day Artemis was confronted by Batman about her choice of actions towards the janitor she had fought. He died that morning due to injuries she had inflicted.

She didn't say a word or look at any of her teammates as they voted on whether or not she was ready to rejoin the team.

She was ready, or at least she thought he was.

The vote was unanimous. Artemis walked over to the Zeta Tubes with her head held high as she pasted her now former teammates.

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><p><em><strong>but we've survived more terrible monsters than sleep<strong>_

_**and you know I will be here to tell you to breathe**_

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><p><strong>AN**

**Yepp. Well, this song makes me cry. I thought about making this into a full-blown multi-chaptered story with the journey of Artemis and rejoining the team and the eventual return of everyone's favorite speedster, but I decided against it.**

**I may in the future if people enjoy this story, but I won't know unless you tell me.**

**Speed Force  
>over and out<strong>

**Read my ongoing fic: She Can Get It**

**I was writing the fourth chapter for SCGT when this popped in my head, so I quickly scribbled it down. It has not been edited, so I apologize for it's suckiness  
><strong>


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